Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-16-Speech-2-152"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20031216.4.2-152"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner Schreyer, ladies and gentlemen, because this year’s budget is the budget of an enlarged Europe, we must understand – as Members have done – the substantial negative factors accompanying the excellent work carried out by the rapporteur, Mr Mulder, the chairman, Mr Wynn and the coordinators.
Whilst underlining the positive mediation role carried out by my coordinator, Mr Walter, I want to point to three negative factors: First of all, payments have been maintained at very restrictive levels, one of the lowest for the last ten years; secondly, in the context of the structural funds, at the end of the year we saw the usual refund of almost EUR 5 billion to the Member States; thirdly, the dispute – already referred to – over Heading 4: as it has done before, the Council proposed cuts in Parliament’s traditional priorities for the purpose of financing this year’s emergency, Iraq. Last year it was Afghanistan. It is against this background that the usual fight between the poor relations has broken out: cut the budget lines for MEDA or for Asia, cut the funds for illnesses linked to poverty or the funds for humanitarian aid, and other possible solutions.
I wonder how far the flexibility instrument and painstaking accounting will enable the circle to be squared? Moreover, as if that were not enough, this year the entire budget procedure has been weighed down, as we all know, by a series of attacks against Parliament’s budgetary powers in the context of the work of the Intergovernmental Conference.
It is clear that the problem is political and much broader, as many Members have noted. The problem arises from the lack of generosity on the part of certain Member States towards the Union – yesterday’s letter is a further demonstration of that – as if the road travelled together so far were not sufficient to demonstrate that the resources granted to the European Union are resources given to ourselves, for the peace, security and well-being of the Member States.
The accounts of the European Union cannot be taken as the starting point for establishing its political priorities. This is why I appreciate the action taken by Mr Prodi and by the Commission over which Mr Prodi presides: because the Commission is succeeding in providing guidance. Our political initiative, and that of the European Parliament, must strengthen this ability and force the Member States to transform their short-sightedness into the capacity to create a vision, to give political direction enabling recovery to take place, to make further progress in the field of a major supranational authority.
What we want to achieve is not merely a wider geographical Union of 25 States, what we must achieve is a genuine political objective."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples